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today secretary of defense leon panetta notified congress of the pentagon's plan to furlough 700,000 civilian employees, who, beginning in april, will be required to take one day off per week. in essence, a 20% pay cut. as for the current political geist, this seems to be more about political positioning rather than prevention. this afternoon, the president will sit down with local tv anchors to explain the adverse effects of the coming cuts. meanwhile, speaker john boehner is out with an op-ed in today's "wall street journal" entitled "the president is reigning against a budget crisis he created." the same budget crisis speaker boehner and 173 of his house republicans voted for back in 2011. as a reminder, this is how he described the deal at the time. >> you know, i got 98% of what i wanted. i'm pretty happy. >> what is making speaker boehner unhappy with the present situation? quote, no one should be talking about raising taxes when the government is still paying people to play video games, giving folks free cell phones, and buying $47,000 gre cigarette-smoking machines. joining m
today secretary of defense leon panetta notified congress of the pentagon's plan to furlough 700,000 civilian employees, who, beginning in april, will be required to take one day off per week. in essence, a 20% pay cut. as for the current political geist, this seems to be more about political positioning rather than prevention. this afternoon, the president will sit down with local tv anchors to explain the adverse effects of the coming cuts. meanwhile, speaker john boehner is out with an op-ed...
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nine days to go and with no budget deal, the pentagon announces upcoming furloughs for 700,000 civilian employees. >>> as his first speech as secretary of state today, john kerry issued a warning about the budget impasse. >> the looming days of budget sequester that everyone actually wants to avoid, or most, we can't be strong in the world unless we are strong at home. my credibility as a diplomat working to help other countries create order is strongest when america at last puts its own fiscal house in order, and that has to be now. >>> mending fences. president obama calls marco rubio and lindsey graham to talk immigration reform as john mccain faces an angry town hall at home. >> i'd like to respond to any questions or comments or insults that you may have. >> believe me, that is only the beginning. wait until you see what happens next. >>> joe biden being biden. the vice president's frank advice to parents on self defense and gun control. >> if you want to protect yourself, get a double-barrel shotgun. you don't need an ar-15. it's harder to aim, it's harder to use, and, in fact, yo
nine days to go and with no budget deal, the pentagon announces upcoming furloughs for 700,000 civilian employees. >>> as his first speech as secretary of state today, john kerry issued a warning about the budget impasse. >> the looming days of budget sequester that everyone actually wants to avoid, or most, we can't be strong in the world unless we are strong at home. my credibility as a diplomat working to help other countries create order is strongest when america at last puts...
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they're betting they'll blame the president for lost funding in federal programs and the pentagon over ten years, should the sequestration take place. house speaker john boehner said, quote, today the president advanced an argument republicans have been making for a year. his sequester is the wrong way to cut spending. senate majority leader mitch mcconnell insisted "more than three months after the november election, president obama still prefers campaign events to common sense, bipartisan action." and joining us now for more on this from washington, the former chief economist of the international monetary fund and bloomberg view columnist, simon johnson. he's the co-author of "white house burning: our national debt and why it matters to you," now out in paperback. simon, good to see you this morning. >> nice to be with you. >> simon, if you could help us through this over the next week or so, it doesn't look like there's a path to avoiding the sequestration if you listen to the two sides. so how damaging would this be? because we've heard a couple different versions of it that would
they're betting they'll blame the president for lost funding in federal programs and the pentagon over ten years, should the sequestration take place. house speaker john boehner said, quote, today the president advanced an argument republicans have been making for a year. his sequester is the wrong way to cut spending. senate majority leader mitch mcconnell insisted "more than three months after the november election, president obama still prefers campaign events to common sense,...
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our pentagon correspondent barbara starr is standing by with more on that story. what are they saying? >> well, you know, fredricka, we've been hearing for weeks about this fancy word around washington called sequester. what are we really talking about? layoffs at the pentagon, cutbacks in military spending, but it is the layoffs that are going to start if this budget cut problem is not solved, if congress cannot avert mandatory spending cuts. what the pentagon did is notify congress, are some 800,000 civilian workers are facing one day of furlough for the next 22 weeks. it is going to start hitting an awful lot of people right in the pocketbook. i want you to have a quick listen to one of the pentagon officials that explained some of the impact today. >> the effects of sequestration and the continuing resolution on our military personnel will be devastating. but on our civilians, it will be catastrophic. these critical members of our workforce, they work in our depots. they maintain and repair our tanks, our aircraft, our ships, they teach our kids. they care for
our pentagon correspondent barbara starr is standing by with more on that story. what are they saying? >> well, you know, fredricka, we've been hearing for weeks about this fancy word around washington called sequester. what are we really talking about? layoffs at the pentagon, cutbacks in military spending, but it is the layoffs that are going to start if this budget cut problem is not solved, if congress cannot avert mandatory spending cuts. what the pentagon did is notify congress, are...
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but how much discretion do they have at the pentagon, barbara? can they get rid of big ticket gun programs, weapons instead of furloughing these thousands of people, for example? >> they say they cannot do that, wolf. essentially, sequestration, that word again, means mandatory across the board budget cuts. everybody takes a hit. so they say they can't do that. >> the military will not furlough workers on bases around the world and there are at least 100 bases around the world. only bases in the united states can be furloughed. why is that? >> in many cases these foreign nonu.s. workers are paid by the local countries so there's no savings there. in other cases, they would have to renegotiate essentially employment agreements with that government. that opens up a can of worms. a lot of this is just set in stone, very little discretion about how to carry all of this out if it comes to that, wolf. >> $46 billion in defense department cuts, according to this forced budget plan cut. just for some perspective, the u.s. is going to spend $88 billion th
but how much discretion do they have at the pentagon, barbara? can they get rid of big ticket gun programs, weapons instead of furloughing these thousands of people, for example? >> they say they cannot do that, wolf. essentially, sequestration, that word again, means mandatory across the board budget cuts. everybody takes a hit. so they say they can't do that. >> the military will not furlough workers on bases around the world and there are at least 100 bases around the world. only...